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Omicron largely evades immunity from past infection or two vaccine doses

imperial.ac.uk

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Re: Omicron largely evades immunity from past infection or two vaccine doses

#71
post #63
post #29

It's worth clarifying: un-boosted vaccination or past infection seem to have greatly reduced ability to prevent infection with Omicron. There is still substantial (lessened, but not as drastically lessened) protection against serious illness / death. My understanding is that protection-against-infection and protection-against-death rely on different aspects of the immune system. The primary protection against initial…

What you’re saying sounds correct, but is there any evidence that shows omicron is resulting in less serious illness/death because of the vaccines? The reports seem to indicate that the overall risk profile of omicron is lower including for unvaccinated people. Are we just parroting the same fact as for the alpha/delta variants without any substantial evidence here when we say vaccination helps avoid serious illness…

give it a month or two and we'll see who's right or wrong

Re: Omicron largely evades immunity from past infection or two vaccine doses

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe is ... about how recently you received your last shot .. not because it is really any different than my 2nd shot. No. That appears not be the situation. Immunity shortly after the thirds shot is substantially higher than shortly after the second https://twitter.com/PaulMainwood/status/1460191035531878405 https://twitter.com/PaulMainwood/status/1458026852249919490

I have seen speculation that the second dose was given too quickly.

If you assume an unlimited supply of vaccine then the shorter dose interval gets everybody to good level of sterilizing immunity as quickly as possible.

Re: Omicron largely evades immunity from past infection or two vaccine doses

#74
post #4

If it evades immunity from past infection isn’t it a different virus in the practical sense?

Not really, evasion is a continuum rather than a binary distinction. So Omicron seems like it evades immunity acquired from infection with previous variants or vaccines to a certain degree, but from what I have read with vaccine + booster you are still ~60-80% protected from symptomatic infection and almost entirely protected from severe outcomes.

Re: Omicron largely evades immunity from past infection or two vaccine doses

#75

Anecdotal but I currently have Omicron. I had COVID in March 2021 and got vaccinated in September. I have no symptom except back pain.

While anecdotal data isn’t very useful, it is good to remember that people actually do get this disease. It seems like it’s always at arms length in online discussions; that someone else will get it surely, probably due to some implied moral failing, but not OP. Thanks for sharing and I hope you get better soon.

Re: Omicron largely evades immunity from past infection or two vaccine doses

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other industries they call this "sales": getting rid of current perishable stock before buying fresh one. It's there, we might as well use it.

You really think the CDC and other govt and NGO organizations, as an international coordinated group effort, are in bed with pharma companies, plotting with them to falsify data and craft false recommendations, just so those farma companies can make more $$? I mean, I actually do think that pharma companies are vile, have successfully gained significant regulatory capture, and can influence policy through their own m…

Big Pharma mobilized an armies of people and equipment to create vaccines in record time to save lives, but people still like to shit on them.

Re: Omicron largely evades immunity from past infection or two vaccine doses

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, since the booster seems to protect, no? I am hoping that Omicron will boost immunity versus delta while being more mild. This makes me suspect that this will be the case: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/omicron-dominant-was... "Even though there have been practically no cases of clinical infection, wastewater samples show that the new omicron variant is now the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the Florida…

I wonder if they saw more traces from the theme park wastewater... Business idea: device that you plug to your home wastewater output, scans it, and reports to you anything interesting. Of course it'd need to be connected to the cloud and have a stupid subscription fee. /s . At least then "Internet of Shit" will apply to the name non-sarcastically.

You’re late to the party. Smart toilet, identifies you by looking at your butthole https://www.vice.com/en/article/jge377/stanford-smart-toilet...

Re: Omicron largely evades immunity from past infection or two vaccine doses

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen speculation that the second dose was given too quickly.

If you assume an unlimited supply of vaccine then the shorter dose interval gets everybody to good level of sterilizing immunity as quickly as possible.

Yep. if you need to fight against a raging pandemic, then quickly as possible (as quickly as is tested to be safe, quickly as makes a significant difference) is the over-riding concern.

Re: Omicron largely evades immunity from past infection or two vaccine doses

#79

What about both? I have both past infection and I'm double vaxxed. Based on the data, should I get boosted? From what I'm reading the answer is yes but does anybody have an estimation of my protection right now?

It is called hybrid immunity and it is much longer lasting

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20211202/Hybrid-immunity-p...

"The overall protection provided by two doses of ChAdOX1 was considerably lower than that given by BNT162b2. However, infection-acquired immunity boosted with vaccination-induced immunity remained high over a year after infection. Based on these observations, the authors recommend the strategic use of booster vaccines to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission in the population."

Re: Omicron largely evades immunity from past infection or two vaccine doses

#80

Does anyone understand why a third dose of the same vaccine improves immunity to Omicron? I'm willing to believe the empirical evidence that boosters make a meaningful difference, but I can't figure out intuitively why the same mRNA a third time helps to address this new spike.

After exposure to a pathogen the levels your body starts evolving antibodies against it. It also quickly ramps up antibody production, but ramps that down over time without additional exposure.

Having had a more recent jab will mean a higher quantities of antibodies. But more vaccinations also means your body has done more cycles of evolving better targeted antibodies against the threat. I assume that there's a certain level of diminishing return to the second factor, as well as questions about how much the extra work translates against a new variant. But the second effect exists alongside the first.

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